Could your travel agency benefit from video content marketing?
by Natalia Lopez
There’s no denying it. People on every corner of the planet are obsessed with video content.
Over half of the world’s population is estimated to spend between 4-10 hours watching online video content every week and YouTube is now the second biggest online search engine after Google. A staggering 1 billion hours of video content are consumed on the site each day.
This is a marketeers dream as every second of video content has the potential to influence consumer decisions across the globe. For travel brands, this means there’s never been an easier way to get people to go from day dreaming about far-flung destinations, to booking that life-changing trip.
Achieving all this is also easier than it sounds thanks to the unmatched ability of video to allow brands to identify themselves and connect to audiences. When done right, seconds of video can accomplish more than lengths of text and piles of static images.
It gets better. The number of people engaging with travel content on the biggest social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok ,Facebook and YouTube is also expected to grow exponentially, with no signs of stopping.
This means there’s never been a better time for travel brands to harness the power of video content marketing as part of their social media strategy.
If you’re curious about how video content can add value to your brand, read on to discover our top five benefits.
Video is memorable
Moving images grab our attention, humans are evolutionarily wired to notice and focus on motion. Numerous trials have tested the effects of this phenomenon on our ability to recall different types of information. The results show audiences retain up to 95% of the information contained in videos compared to an average maximum of just 10% from written text. Mindblowing stuff.
As a result, your brand’s distinguishing traits like its mission, values, products and services are best captured, shared and remembered by video. When selling a destination or an experience you want to take advantage of video’s ability to trigger an emotional response to persuade people into a purchase.
Even the shortest videos can cause a maximum impact with the sweet spot length for most advertising videos reported to be between 6-10 seconds. Most of the time, ads on Instagram stories also outperform their more expensive studio-shot counterparts. Thanks to the era of social media, video content marketing is within everyone's budget and grasp.
Video is the best way to show your identity
Brand storytelling is one of the most important tools you must use on your travel brand’s journey to success. Communicating your USP, differentiating yourself from competitors and showcasing your personality are fundamental for connecting you to consumers everywhere.
All of this can be achieved within just a few short seconds with a high-quality video full of effective content and an accompanying sound social media strategy. Luckily for travel brands, travel content is one of the most in-demand sectors with consumers increasingly hungry for more shots of jaw-dropping natural wonders and phenomenal faraway adventures on which to feast their eyes.
The beauty of video is that it can incorporate all other forms of digital media within one type of experiential content to take audiences on an immersive experience. Mixing in sound, using animation, overlaying photographs and including text means you can harness the best out of every other type of visual and auditory content to weave a compelling narrative about your travel brand.
Video is versatile
Video content can take various shapes. From destination and travel guides to interviews, testimonials, and promotional advertising. The possibilities really are endless when it comes to the specifics of what travel brands can use video to do.
The result? You have innumerable ways to get consumers hooked, keep them watching and have them coming back for more.
Aside from versatility in what they contain, videos are also flexible in how they contain this content.
Unlike some text and images, videos can also easily be made mobile friendly. Editing things like aspect ratio, orientation and adding captions are some of the clever ways post-production can optimise the effectiveness of video content.
Your bite-sized masterpieces can then be effectively consumed by busy on-the-go consumers. Brilliant news when you consider that over half of all video content is viewed on mobiles.
It doesn’t stop there. Following the gargantuan rise of TikTok, whose popularity took everyone by surprise, the other most popular social media tools like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube have also taken notice of consumer demand for video content and have adapted their platforms to accommodate short form videos.
So, not only does video give you unrivaled flexibility to experiment creatively, once you’ve got your shots they can be uploaded far and wide across the internet. For brands, this brings an unlimited number of potential consumers tantalizingly closer to you and those all important purchases.
Video triggers emotion
One marketing company analysed 430 billion video views and 100,000 consumer data points to investigate the two factors that most influence a video’s ability to go viral.
They revealed that the way a video makes an audience feel (its psychological response) and the reasons they would want to share it (its social motivation) were the two leading drivers of viral success
Numerous brands have benefitted from the power of video shares, i.e. the web’s answer to word of mouth advertising. Inspiring brand loyalty has never been a more fun challenge.
Marketing professionals worldwide agree that videos give the best ROI. Science has also proven that videos are more effective than logical persuasion at triggering an emotional response in people. This explains why videos that elicit strong responses from an audience are almost twice as likely to be shared than those that don’t.
Once brands tap into an emotional response, they are in the privileged position of being connected to their audience and therefore able to influence consumer decisions. Words can be cumbersome and pictures can be limited but moving images stimulate an audiences’ imagination and their subsequent actions in ways that are predictable and repeatable. Video therefore gives travel brands unparalleled marketing potential.
Video is the most effective form of digital marketing
The ability of video to provide effortless engagement, boost brand awareness and be easily customisable are just some of the benefits that when combined, make video the most effective form of digital marketing. No other form of digital content can showcase such large amounts of information in a short space of time.
In their 2022 “State of Video Marketing Survey Report” Wyzol asked marketeers what they credit video with helping their business achieve. An overwhelming proportion (80%-94%) said video content increased site traffic and dwell time, increased the understanding of their products and services and increased lead generation, sales and brand awareness.
Further confirmation of videos' unrivaled efficiency came from surveyed customer perspectives.
Most people revealed preferring to watch video over reading texts to learn about a product or service. 88% of people also confirmed they had made a purchase after watching a brand’s video.
Wrapping up
Video content has taken the world by storm and as more people get on board with its numerous benefits, you don’t want to be left behind.
At Curious Crab, we’ve produced video content for travel brands across the globe and we’ve personally witnessed the ability of video to take brands from humble beginnings to electrifying new heights.
Not having enough time and not knowing where to start are often the main challenges that can put brands off working with video marketing. However, the benefits that video content can bring to your travel brand are just too great to miss out on.
Working with a trusted partner like Curious Crab can take the stress out of the experience and allow you to reap the rewards of video without breaking a sweat.
